Failures, Disappointments & Lessons

Pirl, what a beautiful yard. Can you kinda stand the lupines back up and stake them or are they a lost cause?
My hubby needs to join the shine contest.
Loretta, Yeah what is with the grass growing everwhere but the lawn???

Well I'm glad I'm not the only one with the grass problem! I will be trying a chemical spray. I don't like to use any chemicals, but the grass is mixed in with the plants so it's impossible to get it out.

Here's a pic for the shine contest. I think I finally figured out how to post pics. lol

Nice shine. Adorable baby! Mine's getting old (11). I want a new one again.

This pic is actually 9 months ago(man it goes fast)My other one is 4. I told hubby if I want another we'll get a puppy.

flowerjen - beautiful baby and I assume that's DH - the flower wacker. He looks so (I was going to say peaceful) intent on the game he is watching on TV - seen that look on my DH many times. Either that or my DH is asleep in front of the TV.

This is my fav pic, baby's first Christmas
This message was edited Jun 6, 2007 1:27 AM

This message was edited Jun 6, 2007 1:29 AM

How absolutely adorable. Enjoy her all you can - time flies.

No staking the lupines without losing our minds so Jack went out with the pruners and it took three wheelbarrow loads to get the fallen victims back to the compost area. It is a real heartbreaker.

Thanks for all the compliments!

Beautiful Jen. Yes, the time will go so fast it will blow your mind. Can't believe my guys are 5 and 8 already. Yes, Harper, have another. No more for me thanks.

What a pretty little girl, Flowerjen!

Jen - keep the pics coming of her. What a joy she must be in your life and as the others said time does go by so fast. She has such a sweet smile and beautiful eyes. Here's my grandson on his first birthday. Eleanor

Jen and Eleanor, what beautiful babies! Jen, I already got a puppy. It cured the baby cravings for a little while... they're back.

Harper, maybe you should call Harrison!!

That would definitely be in MY dreams!

"Thanks for the sympathy. I posted on the Garden Design forum for help. The exhaust coming out of the straight pipe is really hot. I am soooo disappointed!"

Why don't you have a contractor come in and add some elbows/additional piping to it and run the pipe/steam off and up away from your window so you at least don't have to see it every time the thing is on (like a chimney) you can then insulate it and box it in? My Mother-in-law in Thomaston had a similar system put in and that's exactly what she did. No more steam and she was able to plant around it.

Pirl-Gorgeous shot of your lupines! It always hurts when something as fast as a storm can destroy something that took days/weeks/months to get exactly right-but that picture is sure worth a thousand words!

I love those baby pictures-will attempt to post one of my 2 little ones-hopefully I do this right...We adopted my son and daughter. They are biologically brother and sister. This pic is the first time they met-dh is holding them.



This message was edited Jun 9, 2007 6:53 PM

Cute!!

Yankeecat-I think the dragon blowing smoke is a fantastic idea-very unusual...Also love the volcano idea. I can definately understand your frustration....I dont know how I would handle this one if it were my house. I do have a clawfoot tub in front of my house that I would probably rig with a water feature to make it look like water pouring out of the faucet, and I would try to direct the steam towards it to look like steam with a trellis to hide the pipes. This is a toughie-I hope you can figure out something that will work...

Eleanor, love the hat!!!
Huggle-what little blessings!
Yankeecat maybe you can build a little gnome house and make it look like the steam is coming out the chimney.

Funny how we are posting about our failures and dissapointments but 5 of our pics certainly aren't failures or dissapointments! We all hate to lose special plants and flowers from our garden but the joy from our families (especially the children and babies) far out-weighs gardening!!
ps I hope?

This message was edited Jun 6, 2007 5:11 AM

Yes - you guys are hijacking this thread with cute kids!! No more of that - this is strictly for lamenting / self-sorrow. Hee hee.

Oh come on Victor we don't want to be totally depressed! LOL

yep, those sweet little faces are definitely the cure for the 'I killed my favorite plant' blues. gee, it's a good thing I get to see baby pics here. I don't even know anybody with little ones right now. My granddaughters are big and my nieces and nephews are all done (pretty much...never say never) having babies. My sister recently became a great-gm, but as she says 'not under the best circumstances'. so I don't expect to see the baby.

anyway, thanks for the pics of the cuties. made me smile.

They sure are cuties! Sorry Victor!

Wow! I didn't think anything could be more beautiful than Pirl's lupine, then those babies showed up! Jen, Eleanor, and Huggle, you are blessed!

My baby is 8 now. I miss having a baby around. On the other, I will be 62 when my little guy graduates high school and we are getting tired. Four is enough.

ok I guess we should humor Victor and get back to more depressing things. I thought one of my hanging baskets had bugs so I over- sprayed it with insectisidal soap (don't know if that's spelled right but you know what it means). The leaves all turned brown on the edges - guess I burned it. Then all of my plants are getting these white (yellow upon closer inspection) specks all over them and it's just POLLEN!! That was one of my favorite hanging baskets too :-( . Hard lesson - next time I'll check more careful before I react!!
Sorry I did it again - I'm Eleanor

This message was edited Jun 7, 2007 6:06 AM

Insecticidal soap should not burn. Was it mixed as per directions??

OK, here goes mine-My dh and I were digging out our own pond at our old house in NJ. Everyone (and common sense) always said you should always check before digging. I did check for power lines, and with cable, etc-but little did I know about the water/sewage pipes that went from the town to the house...Well-after 2 days of us digging-with shovels and my trusty "claw" through the worse clay soil you ever saw-you guessesd it-we hit a water pipe....So the soil went back in the hole, and we had to start again a few feet over.....

Victor - the insecticidal soap was premixed in a spray form and I left it in the sun??

That's surprising then.

Huggle, If you just cracked that pipe, you would have had instant pond!

Just hope it was the water - not the sewer.

Boy - we had some people on our street have their water mains break this winter - it's a big bill to have fixed. Hope things work out for you.

LOL-Dave...

Victory-Hhmmmm-Not sure if it was water or sewer now that you mention it-All I know is it was white PVC, and rather wide....And we very carefully-and SLOWLY replaced the dirt back on top of it where we found it, and relocated the pond....

Bigcity-I know-my sister had to repair her main in Brooklyn right after she purchased her house. Because of where it was located, and what they had to dig through it became a 20,000.00 problem.

The pond incident was about 7 years ago, we have long since moved out of that house...But the pond was lovely when we re-dug, and we had no problems with the pipe that we had exposed and re-covered....

Some new daffs I planted last fall didn't make it. I think it was rot as the bed was kind of wet all winter.
for your columbine, cut worms, and mine get leaf miners really badly so the foliage stays on but looks ugly.
grass. grass. grass. I was sick last spring, summer and fall and it took over. Fighting the good fight this year and I will mulch the daylights out of most of it!
and the lily beetles.
Sigh. I hate the lily beetles.
Martha

That darn grass doesn't even care if it's covered by mulch. I'm resorting to a spray.

http://counties.cce.cornell.edu/suffolk/grownet/ipm/insesoap.html
Victor - I found some info on insecticidal soap and it can damage the plant sometimes and I quess that's what I did. Eleanor

Hmm - which plants did you harm?

Verbena and bacopa - bacopa wilted quite badly and the verbena leaves were brown. I cut them both back to newer growth and I'm hoping they will improve in appearance and survive! I had million bells in the same container and they seem to be ok. Eleanor